Taliban leader hides with bin Laden

The Northern Alliance's Foreign Minister claims Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden are in hiding together.

Dr Abdullah Abdullah has revealed the belief after stating the US gave its Afghan partners a few hours notice before sending Marines into southern Afghanistan.

He says the US Marines were sent to Kandahar when negotiations between Pashtun tribal leaders of the Islamic militia broke down.

Tribal leaders had been pressing the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to hand over Kandahar to them.

Dr Abdullah says he believes thousands of Taliban and foreign fighters loyal to bin Laden were in the south ready to fight the Marines.

"I can say they are thousands without being specific. The forces of the Taliban and the terrorists groups have been contained in and around Kandahar and Helmand (province). They have no where to go."

With the collapse of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, the Taliban and bin Laden's al-Qaida network have been driven into a small pocket of southern Afghanistan. Apart from the provinces of Kandahar, Helmand and Zabul provinces, the Taliban also control parts of Uruzgan province, say some former Taliban in the capital of Kabul.

Attempts to negotiate the surrender of Taliban and their al-Qaida allies have failed, Abdullah said.

He told reporters that the priority of the US-led coalition and the Marines in Kandahar is to wipe out the last remnants of the Taliban that ruled Kabul for five years and to "eradicate terrorism" by capturing bin Laden and crushing al-Qaida.